Lost in the Night
by Einna Aroura Du'an
Summary: One night, almost an annual after the eclipse, Glitch looses his way.


**Title** – Lost

**Pairing** – Glitch/Cain

**Rating** – M for Maturity, people. Okay, nothing really happens, but I always like to be safe.

**Disclaimer **– As always, if I owned them I wouldn't be sitting here writing about them not, would I?

**Summery** – Months after the eclipse, everyone must deal with what happened, and while the others all carry on with nice and normal, happy lives, Cain and Glitch both have pre-existing trauma to contend with, and each only seems to be truly understood by the other, each stuck in their personal hells while everyone else around them is happy. Glitch gets lost in more ways than one, and it's up to Cain to help him remember.

___

Cain stirred. He hadn't been asleep; he'd been laying between the cool sheets in a pair of pyjama bottoms, feeling the gentle creep of the fabric warming, just waiting.

He smiled to himself as he heard the door open.

"Oh," a familiar voice exclaimed quietly. "Um...sorry."

Glitch.

Can rolled onto his back and sat up. "Hey," he greeted. "What's wrong?"

Glitch looked around the room. "Nothing," he assured his friend. "Nothing, I just...." He poked his head out of the door. "I can't find my room...."

Cain sighed wearily and climbed out of bed. He grabbed a while pyjama shirt and began to do it up.

"Don't worry about it," he ordered. "You can stay here tonight."

Glitch's brown creased. "What about you?" He asked.

"I'm not going anywhere." Glitch reddened "What? We've done it before."

Glitch blushed darker as he cast his memory back to earlier in the year, when Cain had found himself on the wet side of the ice, and only Glitches intervention, pulling him out of the cold and warming him up, had saved him. They had never talked about it, but Cain new there was only one was you could save someone from hypothermia; even a roaring open fire didn't do as good a job as another human body, and the clothes he had woken up in were warm and dry and different to those he had been shot it.

"Under slightly different circumstances," Glitch muttered to himself.

Cain shrugged as he sat on the end of the bed. "Not so much," he reasoned. "Both are born of necessity. You don't know where your room is, after all, and you need sleep."

"You could always just tell me and let me be," Glitch said snappishly, like a child who thinks they are being mocked.

Cain shook his head. "Not a chance. You're obviously glitching, or you'd remember, and I don't want you alone in case something happens."

Glitch glared at him mildly. "Why?"

"For the same reason you pulled me from the ice," Cain answered. "Because we care about each other."

Glitches glare melted and was replaced with a beaming smile. "Oh, well, that's alright then!" He accepted and started pulling off his boots. This was why Cain worried for him; he had said it many times before, and would undoubtedly do so again. He was far too trusting for his own good. "Move over."

Cain smiled, discreetly watching the other man as he stripped down to his shirt and trousers. He climbed into one side of the bed, and Glitch joined him.

"Is this okay?" Glitch asked innocently, practically balancing on the edge furthest from Cain.

_'Far from it' _Cain thought, but didn't say anything. "It's fine," he agreed. "Just keep your cold feet on your own side."

Glitch smiled and scooted a little further still, perched comfortably on the edge of the mattress. He wriggled; something was pressing against his ribs. He assumed it was just a crease in the fabric, but when it didn't remove itself with his wriggling, he propped himself up on one arm to investigate.

"What're you doing?" Asked Cain, watching his actions. He realized just before Glitch did what he'd found. "Wait!" He tried to say, but the word was too late.

Glitch held up the buckled, leather strap attached to the bed.

"What's this then, Tin Man?" Glitch ribbed. "This is pretty wrong, I think." He gave a little shudder. "Makes a guy worry about..." he glanced at Cain briefly. "...what you have planned for him."

Cain though about if for a moment, as long as he was technically allowed to think silently for, and then he sat himself up and looked Glitch directly in the eye. "Nothing you don't want me to," he promised, watching Glitches expression.

The expression tensed a little more, genuinely afraid of what much have seemed like such a lapse of the other man's character. "I think I'd better get back to my room now," he said quietly, trying to discreetly off of the bed.

Cain sat to follow Glitch as he rose, grabbing one of his hands gently. "Glitch, this *is* your room," he said. "It has been for months; you and I are together, Glitch, and this is our room. You just forget sometimes."

Glitch stared at him. Cain could see he didn't believe him. Glitch looked away before long, looking down at the leather strap on the bed. He could see it properly now; it was basically a glorified belt, with separate leather hand-cuffs, to most effectively pin your arms to your sides. He recognized it. Oh yes, he remembered that.

"It was your idea," Cain answered the unspoken question. "The dreams have been troubling you lately; you wanted me to try and help you not to be afraid."

"It's not working," he stated.

"I know."

"Then why is it still there?"

Cain closed his eyes a second. "That's not important."

"I want to know," he snapped.

Cain sighed. "We were going to try tonight," he said simply. "It would have been the last time we tried. But you were obviously worried about it because you glitched and forgot."

Glitch nodded slowly, not taking it overly well. Cain could see the look in his face that usually preluded a glitch. Exposed to extreme emotion, Glitch often did exactly that; forgot or shorted out something in that struggling mind.

"Right," he muttered, still thinking. His eyes clouded over. "Of course. What were we talking about?"

"You glitched," Cain explained gently. "You don't remember me, do you?"

"Of course," he answered with a friendly smile. "You're Cain."

Cain shook his head. "That's not what I mean," he stated. "You and I are together; we have been for months. We were just about to retire and you Glitched."

Glitch paused and looked down at himself, then back to Cain. "Okay," he agreed innocently.

Cain pulled the hand he was still holding and tugged him back down onto the bed, pulling him close this time so he wouldn't feel the belt and begin the process again. He settled the smaller man against his body, Glitch curling naturally and resting his head on Cain's chest.

"If this okay?" He asked in the exact same innocent voice he had earlier.

Cain smiled, rubbing his back and kissing the top of his head. "It's perfect. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he murmured.

"Do you remember?" He asked hopefully.

"No," he answered.

Cain supposed it would have to do.


End file.
